She tried to take a deep breath, but then her eyes watered from the pain of expanding lungs pushing against fractured ribs. She coughed, which only made it worse. I dropped her hand, reaching for the pitcher of water by her bed. She shook her head, refusing the cup I poured.

“But how did it happen?” I asked. “Did he and The Realtor break up again?”

Her head tilted in the slightest nod.

“I don’t know. All I know is he came back home from her place angry and ready to take it out on me. It’s what he does, finds something to be mad about. This time he came home and started screaming about how I’d left a mess in the kitchen. Dragged me out of my room to clean it up.” Her voice sounded so far away, like she was lost in a memory—like she was still in the Pink Mansion trying to escape.

I wanted to keep her from going under. I wanted to save her from drowning in the past, but I was helpless. I didn’t know what to do. Elise had always been the one with all the answers, and this time she had none.

“He said I was ungrateful after all the things he’d done for me. After all the sacrifices he’d made for me. The same stuff he always says.” She was trying to hold back tears, like she didn’t want his words to matter, to hurt her. “The kitchen wasn’t even that messy. But I guess that wasn’t really the point.” I remembered what Elise told me: If he was having a bad day, he’d make sure I’d have one too.

“Remy?” she said, finally turning toward me.

“I’m here.” And I’ll never leave, I thought. Ever.

“Am I a burden?”

“What? No,” I said. Elise didn’t look convinced and I didn’t blame her, not after the way I’d treated her. I promised myself then and there that I’d never, ever let her feel like she was a burden.

“No one wants me around. No one ever wants me around. Not my mom, not my dad. I don’t have anyone,” she said, tears running down her face, clinging to the curve of her chin. “Not even you.” The words cut me up.

I touched my own face, felt tears on my cheeks as well. I couldn’t remember when I started crying. Maybe I had never stopped.

“That’s not true,” I said. “I want you. I need you. I love you.” Before Elise, I spent my days on boys who never loved me—distractions that granted me temporary escape from my parents, my life. Then Elise burst into my world, filling it with searing color, and for a while it’d been just the two of us. Elise x Remy.

“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t. Not like I need you.”

“What are you talking about? Of course I do.” Even then I knew it was a lie. But it didn’t have to be. We were Elise x Remy once, and we could be that again.